In a preliminary prior art search, no relevant prior art was located, with regard to the novel aspects and objects of the present invention. The sole patent located that is of interest but directed to divergent problems and objects and structures a part of that invention, is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,692 to Marc Q. Vanstrom directed to a large window-pane edges-shielding structure of numerous diverse parts inclusive of manually holding in position, for adjustable revolvable lever for alternately extending or contracting concurrently collapsable pivoted arms each carrying a separate right-angled flat-faced and flatly-mounted corner shield, and requiring continued manual holding of the device during any painting operation for vertically-mounted windowpanes. Likewise U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,793 to Balllejos is directed to flat-faced and flatly-mounted oppositely spring-biased window pane shields each having solely one linear edge, for positioniong between opposite linear frame edges of a window frame, for fixedly-positioning the shield; nothing is stated relative to having any self-supporting feature.
During the painting of frame-trim around a mounted window pane, a painstaking effort and steady hand as well as reasonable care and undivided attention all are required to avoid the accidental painting of adjoining surfaces of the mounted window pane. While prior art devices such as the afore-stated prior art and/or such as a mere hand held straight-edge have been inadequate possibilities, nothing heretofore has been available to effectively and quickly and easily free both hands by utilization of easily and quickly mountable self-supporting paint shields. Also none have been constructed to effectively avoid paint smearing the pane during shifting and/or removing of the shield from contact with the glass during or after completion of painting. Heretofore one of the hands and divided attention of the painter have been required with heretofore window pane paint shield(s) especially for corner areas during the painting of the window frame or framing trim. Such, likewise is the situation for the above-noted bulky and heavy prior art flat-face flatly positionable device. Heretofore, therefore, painting the frame-trim around windows has been one of the more time consuming tasks of industrial and consumer home painting. A relatively large amount of time is required to cover a small area when painting window frame-trim, whereas regular painting of flat faces requires a relatively small amount of time to cover a large area. Heretofore it has been virtually impossible to speedily paint window frame trim free-handedly without having some of the paint spill or run onto the framed window pane adjacent surface and/or smear of paint onto the window pane at and/or beneath the edge(s) of manually-held paint shield caused by shifting during painting and/or during removal of a window pane prior art flat-faced and/or flatly-positioned paint shield during and/or after painting of the adjacent window frame trim. This required additional effort to promptly requiring clean-up paint from the affected area(s). An optional approach has been a time-consuming taping of the adjacent windowpane areas, which after the trim or frame painting nevertheless smears the pane area(s) during the removal of the tape after the window areas, and/or leaves unsightly adhesive debris on the surfaces of the window pane--requiring further tedious cleaning while avoiding mutilating the freshly painted frame surfaces. Conventional use of razor blade(s) during such clean-ups includes the real hazards and possibilities of cutting the finger of the cleanup person.
A problem in otherwise masking an entire window involves the difficulty of cutting a close and non-obstructive shaped shield, with no standardized shield being available for most windows that normally vary considerably in sizes.
Accordingly, there is need for a working accessory that largely overcomes such plaguing difficulties and prolonged arduous work--whether done by a professional or by an amatuer.